Numerous discoveries within the field of biomimetic research have led to the recognition that proteins can induce or accelerate precipitation of inorganic materials—both crystalline and amorphous—from aqueous precursors under ambient conditions. In vitro experiments have demonstrated that these same proteins as well as shorter chain peptides that mimic certain regions of the proteins can exhibit these same effects absent any biological context. These findings suggest that synthetic molecules might be discovered that can serve as accelerants of crystallization processes in industrial settings. Moreover, design of molecules that mimic the action of these natural biopolymers but that are much more stable against high pressures, temperatures and acidic conditions would result in a technology that is broadly applicable to industrial crystallization. Some example areas of potential application include pharmaceuticals, non-linear optical crystals, scintillators, and materials for sequestration of metals, radionuclides and CO2. While the overall concept of using non-natural biomimetic polymers to accelerate crystallization or amorphous precipitation is the general subject of our disclosure, the last of these examples is the application addressed by the specific claims of this disclosure.
Since the mid-20th century, the average temperature of Earth's near surface air and oceans is significantly increased. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concludes that most of the observed temperature increase was very likely caused by increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases resulting from human activity such as fossil fuel burning and deforestation. The increase of carbon dioxide (CO2) (one of the main greenhouse gases) in the atmosphere is believed one of main contributions which cause global warming. How to efficiently capture carbon dioxide and stabilize atmospheric CO2 level has become significantly important to stop global warming.
Currently, many types of materials have been developed for targeting CO2 capture. For example, alkylamine-containing liquids were developed for chemisorption of CO2; porous materials (e.g. zeolites, metal-organic frameworks) were developed for physical adsorption of CO2. Although some of these materials have shown promising applications for CO2 sequestration, several disadvantages have to be addressed to store large amount of CO2 in geological environment, such as the materials stability in geological environment, the materials toxicity to the geological environment, the storage capability only under high pressure and low temperature, and the cost to prepare large amount of materials.